I thought I'd share some pics with you all, of a car I'm very proud and excited to take ownership of. First, a story and some background history.

Back in 1986, I read about this insane car called the Buick Grand National. It was the fastest production car in the world from 0-60 mph, except for the Porsche 911 Turbo. The 911 did it in 4.6, the G/N in 4.9 (according to Car & Driver, 1986 G/N Road Test archive). Anyway, I pestered my Dad to go to a dealership and check it out (he was originally into looking at a Camaro or Firebird). Needless to say, after the test-drive, he was signing the papers! Where else could you find a car that could whup Corvette butt and also have a backseat capable of seating 3 adults, AND a full trunk space?

This car drove me and my two brothers to our grad ceremonies. I used to take it downtown and absolutely ruin almost any other car who would take the challenge (very few people knew about the G/N), and I even used to race guys on motorbikes because they were more of a challenge (at least until 60 or so mph, when they'd pull ahead, hehe!). My 1970 Charger was fast but the G/N was in another class entirely.

Over the years my Dad has driven the car more and more infrequently, and was thinking of selling it. I never even considered buying it, until I was dead-set on buying a Dodge Magnum, but couldn't afford it with the Hemi motor...and I sure as heck wasn't going to buy a Magnum, all bad-ass attitude and black, with the V-6! I just couldn't afford it, and I didn't want to buy a car that was all attitude but no balls. But I could afford the G/N, and my Dad sold it to me for a great "family only" deal, $10K. The car has about 92K kilometers on it and is in almost pristine shape.

There were only just 5,512 G/N's sold in 1986. (Most people who know the G/N heard about it a year later, in 1987, when Buick made a lot more, including an even faster special edition of the G/N called the GNX.) The regular G/N of 1987 was actually a little slower than the 86, but the GNX was a bit faster. However, there were a lot more 87 G/N's made, 20,193, with only 547 GNX's made. At any rate, my Dad's 86 G/N is a rare beast.

I bought brand new Centerline Auto-Drags for the car this month. I've always loved the look of these wheels, and they are amazingly light! The car originally had 215/65R15's all around, but I bought some 235/60R15's on the rear for a slightly wider look, and went with 8.5" wide rims on the rear instead of 7" all around, which now has them filling the wheel-wells perfectly.

I took the car for a spin downtown for the first time in about 10 years, and at a red light, this guy in a souped-up red 5.0 Mustang yells over, "Beautiful car, man, is that a *real* Grand National?!" Pretty cool to go for a drive and hear this from people who still remember the legend! (No, he didn't race me...LOL)

Anyway, I just wanted to share my story, and a little bit of history, with my fellow pimps, and share my new pimpin' wheels! (Note: I still have my 1970 Charger, I'll be eventually getting around to a ground-up restoration of it someday.)

Comments or memories welcome!

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Sweet ride no doubt.....But I still wan't to see the CHARGER revisited....

Beautiful car. That thing is super clean. I do like the change to the wheels, looks meaner.

You are one lucky dude to have that ride. I heard a lot of stories about the G/N competing with ZO6s.

The real beauty of GN's is the amount of "Bolt on" horespower that's out there!

With just a few of them, like a chip, freee flowing exhaust and improved intercooler, they were running low 12's or high 11's with 3.73 gears and slicks!

Even just a few minor updates got em running low 13's on street tires

It's often said Darth Vader would have felt at home in one, they just plain look Bad Ass!

ahh 80's american horse power - fuel guzzler, loud, fast and built like a tank no doubt.

That is a sweet lookin ride................ I luv those wheels too.......

Nice ride. Had a buudy from high school had one of those , that is one fast ride.

Quote: Originally Posted by nev_payne ahh 80's american horse power - fuel guzzler, loud, fast and built like a tank no doubt.

Actually they got reasonably good gas millege, in the high teens wasn't out of the question. Had a 3.8 liter V6 under the hood that turned out over 230hp and 330 ftlbs of torque stock. With the mods $SOLID$ Necro mentioned they can reach 400hp without having much trouble. Anyhoo, Coelacanth, that car rocks. Take good care of it or I will be forced to come up to Canada and give you a stern talking too.

GN = the American version of the Supra, but a crapload cheaper to initially buy.

Sweet ride, one of the dudes on my local car forum just bought one.

Thanks for the comments guys! Re: the loud gas guzzler thing: compared to my Charger, or even my 98 Dakota with the 5.2L, I hardly even notice the gas needle in the G/N. The car is very good on gas (considering it's incredible performance). It's also a very quiet car on idle. It has a noticeably bumpy idle, but it makes a rather quiet "ticking" sound on idle, not at all like a V-8's rumble. When you give it 3/4 acceleration, you hear the turbo whistle as it winds up, it doesn't sound like a muscle-car at all. When you go flat-out, it's actually surprising how quiet it is, but the sound you hear kind of reminds you of a jet when it accelerates, it has this high-pitched whistling noise you can hear above the engine's exhaust. It definitely sounds different, and anybody idling beside you wouldn't think for a minute you had something really fast going on...if the car wasn't so badass and black in appearance, it'd be the ultimate sleeper!

Nice comment about Darth Vader, yeah I could totally picture him driving a Grand National if he lived thousands of years earlier!

Buick significantly understated the horsepower of the G/N, it was officially rated at 235. Two of the most common reasons for the underrated numbers were because of insurance rates, or because Buick didn't want to up-stage the power of the Corvette for that year (which was rated at 230 hp).

I can't wait to modernize it somewhat. I already have tracked down some essential mods, a "Big Mouth" custom cold air intake which is much better than the kit cone-filter-type cold air intakes available for the car, as it positions the filter in front of the rad housing instead of behind. A scan tool and performance chip are definite plans, and a modern higher-boost turbo (but still retaining a stock appearance, I've always loved sleepers)...and some minor exhaust mods including a Terry Houston 3" downpipe and new cat-back exhaust...

Some of the wildest G/N's are doing low- to mid-8-second 1/4-miles, but I'm aiming for around 11 to 12 second quarters. I plan to drive it summers, not just on a drag strip.

Quote: Originally Posted by Coelacanth Thanks for the comments guys! Re: the loud gas guzzler thing: compared to my Charger, or even my 98 Dakota with the 5.2L, I hardly even notice the gas needle in the G/N. The car is very good on gas (considering it's incredible performance). It's also a very quiet car on idle. It has a noticeably bumpy idle, but it makes a rather quiet "ticking" sound on idle, not at all like a V-8's rumble. When you give it 3/4 acceleration, you hear the turbo whistle as it winds up, it doesn't sound like a muscle-car at all. When you go flat-out, it's actually surprising how quiet it is, but the sound you hear kind of reminds you of a jet when it accelerates, it has this high-pitched whistling noise you can hear above the engine's exhaust. It definitely sounds different, and anybody idling beside you wouldn't think for a minute you had something really fast going on...if the car wasn't so badass and black in appearance, it'd be the ultimate sleeper! Nice comment about Darth Vader, yeah I could totally picture him driving a Grand National if he lived thousands of years earlier! Buick significantly understated the horsepower of the G/N, it was officially rated at 235. Two of the most common reasons for the underrated numbers were because of insurance rates, or because Buick didn't want to up-stage the power of the Corvette for that year (which was rated at 230 hp). I can't wait to modernize it somewhat. I already have tracked down some essential mods, a "Big Mouth" custom cold air intake which is much better than the kit cone-filter-type cold air intakes available for the car, as it positions the filter in front of the rad housing instead of behind. A scan tool and performance chip are definite plans, and a modern higher-boost turbo (but still retaining a stock appearance, I've always loved sleepers)...and some minor exhaust mods including a Terry Houston 3" downpipe and new cat-back exhaust... Some of the wildest G/N's are doing low- to mid-8-second 1/4-miles, but I'm aiming for around 11 to 12 second quarters. I plan to drive it summers, not just on a drag strip.

You should do twin GT3037's and water/alcohol injection, hehe

You should try www.conleyracing.com They have lots of GN parts for sale, upgrade kits and helpfull articles on how to get the most bang for your buck. They also run the fastest '83 GN in the USA with a 7.75 sec @ 178.96 mph dragstrip run.